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For video editing, what CPU/graphics card combo is needed?

M

mariner

Golden Member
I'm buying a laptop or notebook for my daughter who begins college next fall. I anticipate she will be involved in some Photoshop and video editing work. Since I've never done any video editing I do not know how much CPU or graphics card would be required. I was thinking that something like 2.0GHz with a 128MB card would be adequate. What would y'all suggest? And would a notebook or full laptop be best?

mariner
 
A powerful graphics card is only necessary for 3D graphics. Photoshop and video editing are largely 2D graphics oriented and more CPU bound than anything else. Lots of system memory (512 MB+) also helps.

Get something with a Pentium M processor and nice LCD screen (stay the heck away from anything Pentium 4 related). Don't get something heavy. I wouldn't go with a machine heavier than 6 lbs. The bigger stuff is a pain to tote around.

Before making recommendations I think we'd need to know how much you are willing to spend. I'd guess that Dell is a good choice - their notebooks have very nice LCD displays (excellent brightness & color) but don't cost a bundle. Dell also has notebooks with widescreen options. The Dell Inspiron 600m, 700m, and Dell Latitude D600 might work out well. The Latitude D800 is a nice widescreen notebook but I think it is a bit heavy.

Generally I recommend IBM but I don't think that the LCD screens they use are that great for graphics work.
 
I'd personally recomend an IBM T42 with a 14" LCD and atleast a 1.6ghz pentium-M on the PC side. A faster hard drive (7200rpm would be best) and plenty of ram (I'd suspect you'd want atleast 1gb) would be my choice for graphics work. Also make sure you get the high rez LCD, as 1024x786 won't cut it... I belive their higher res one is like 1400 x 1050 or something like that.

I'd also look into an apple powerbook. New powerbooks should be announced shortly after chirstmas (like jan 12th). They are pretty good for graphics work, and are all around great machines.
 
Pandaren, thanks for the info. Since she is destined for the digital graphics curriculum next year I'm guessing she'll get into 3D stuff eventually. That's why I included the 128 card. Any digital graphics majors out there?? I was hoping to get something for less than $2k. This won't get a top-of-the-line machine but hopefully good enuf to get by for now. Some mobility and small footprint is a must. She will be in a dorm the first year and there isn't much space. Since she doesn't plan to tote the machine to every class extreme light-weight isn't necessary, just some mobility. I have looked at the Dell Inspiron 5160, the Thinkpad T series, and the Sager models at discountlaptop.com. SXGA+, 1400x1050 plus at least 512RAM was also highly recommended in other threads. I am concerned more about video editing capability and cost than mobility.

Wuzup101, thanks, I am considering the T42@14"; others have recommended it as well. I would like the machine to last at least 2 years so I'm going with the fastest CPU in my price range. Since I'm a Windoz guy and my daughter has zero experience with Macs, I'm staying with that format. I can help her with those but not Macs. But I'll look into the powerbook just to see what's there.

mariner
 
Originally posted by: mariner Since I'm a Windoz guy and my daughter has zero experience with Macs, I'm staying with that format. I can help her with those but not Macs. But I'll look into the powerbook just to see what's there.

mariner
Click to expand...

Macs have always been straightforward to learn and use. I'd wager you'll get fewer "Dad, HELP! My computer won't work!" calls with a Mac than with Windows.

Depending on what your daughter wants to do, she might find more Macs in the curriculum than PCs, and it might be an advantage for her to have one of her own. The video and graphic arts field has always been mostly Mac. The 3D field used to be a Unix market, but there are now PC and Mac users there too. Look into exactly what software she'll be using before you buy.
 
Pandaren,
I'm also interested in a new video production set up for my wife.
She's an artist and wants to do more with Video art, video editing and some 2D graphic programs.
(Thank you for the tip on video cards.)

I'm interested in understanding why you said to stay away from
Pentium 4's?

We saw a HP Media Center PC this week, that honestly looks very good
It has a Pentium 4 chip and all the hardware for video editing and apparently everything else she needs with the exception of more RAM and more hard drive space. (there's never enough with Video production)

Should we stay clear of that set up?

(BTW we both hate MAC's) My wife's video art class uses them, they constantly errored and needed hard reboots while editing even short 2 minutes projects.)
 
I think I can answer your question.

Pentium 4 needs a lot of electrical power to keep running. In notebooks this means the machine must be heavier to accomodate a larger battery and cooling system, and battery life will still be mediocre.

In a desktop system it doesn't matter at all. Pentium 4 is fine on the desktop.

Originally posted by: freshspin
I'm interested in understanding why you said to stay away from
Pentium 4's?

We saw a HP Media Center PC this week, that honestly looks very good
It has a Pentium 4 chip and all the hardware for video editing and apparently everything else she needs with the exception of more RAM and more hard drive space. (there's never enough with Video production)

Should we stay clear of that set up?
Click to expand...

 
freshspin,

I think he was more or less telling the poster to stay away from pentium 4s in laptops, as the pentium-M is vastly more efficient and better in portable machines. However, I would say that they are fine for normal use in a desktop. I personally would recomend that you build your own PC instead of buying a pre built HP, but that's just my personal prefrence.

I'm not sure what's wrong with the MACs at your wife's video art class, but many video companies use macs because they don't exibit this behavior. However, to each his/her own, I'm not going to tell you to use a Mac if you have experience with them and don't like them.

Mariner,

The T42 definitely is a great machine, and it comes in a ton of configurations. I'm sure you can fine one in your price range that you're daughter will like. I would say to avoid the dell 5000 series as I have a few friends who have them and they aren't exactly something I'd want to carry around anywhere (and believe me my friends dont drag them anywhere). I'd say T42 is the size you'd want to stick with. Thinner and leaner than most college text books/binders is great. When you start getting into machines that weigh 8ish lbs you don't want to drag them with you.

As for the powerbook, I'd be inclined to agree that you'll probably get far less "dad my computer stopped working" calls. And chances are that if she does have a problem, and is doing art stuff, she'll have a friend that knows OSX enough to help her. I will also say that the learning curve on OSX is next to non existant. You could play with the computer for a day and you'd find pretty much everything you need to use. Installing programs is sooo simple it's not even funny... and everything just works. One of the things that many people don't consider about the mac platform, and actually complain about, which is also valid, is the lack of choice. Truth is, it's one of their major benifits. Apple designs both the hardware and the OS, which means there's less worrying about compatability, as you're using an OS that's taylored for your machine.

I personally couldn't find a better notebook than my powerbook, but I still do enjoy owning a PC. I'm working on learning linux, and lets face it, PCs are better gaming rigs. Still, when I want to get work done, it's done on the powerbook 🙂
 
omissible, I have nothing against Macs. They can be very productive machines. But asking my daughter, or anyone, to switch just months before going into what will likely be the most trying and stressful year of her life is asking a bit much. If she finds that a Mac is what she needs later, I'll help her out.

As for matching the software with the machine, that's exactly why I posted here. I was hoping that some experienced video editiors could help out😉

mariner
 
Wuzup101, thanks for the input. I guess the biggest hangup to a powerbook for us is that I have all the software for a PC-some it is even legal🙂 If you would be so good as to point me to a reasonably priced vendor for hardware and software, I will go check out the powerbook option. I'm still leaning toward a PC but I guess I should be open minded. Macs will not be totally new, I did spend several years dual booting Beos, which I'm told is similar.

mariner
 
I use a Dell Inspiron 8600 for general use as well as video editing in Premiere Pro with an external hard drive connected thru firewire. It works very well and is reasonably light for a desktop replacement. It does have the advantage of better battery life because of the Pentium M chip and reasonable mobility compared to a Pentium 4 laptop.
 
Maybe you should lend your daughter a desktop PC for a semester until you and she can decide on the most appropriate notebook?

I use iMovie (editing/effects) and iDVD (design and burn DVDs) on my PowerBook. It's as simple as can be. But if her friends use Windows, then get her a PC notebook. These days anything on the market is more than fast enough for DV editing, DVD burning, and Photoshop use. (Except maybe for that Via C3 powered $500 Wal-Mart notebook that runs Lindows!! LOL)
 
Surely, here is a link (http://www.academicsuperstore.com/) to a nice site with Academic prices... IE: what you're daughter would be paying at max. Her school might even offer better deals especially if her major is one of the school's larger ones. For instance a complete student copy of macromedia studio MX 2004 will run her less than $190. QuarkXpress would run about $240... again... these are prices for both windows and mac. BTW... yes I own some legal software for both platform also... some... 🙂

Believe me, I'm not trying to push you into getting a mac for her. But being in college myself... and being a hardcore mac hater about year ago... I'm just trying to pass on what I found. Do yourself a favor and visit a local apple store if you get the chance... and actually play with a powerbook. They really are one of the best built laptops on the market today. Also, it's nice not to have to hastle with anything (especially viruses) at college. Just makes life easier. They aren't immune to problems, but I can surely say that I've had far less problems with my powerbook then I did with my custom built PC desktop lats year, and heck I handpicked the parts for that, and it didn't have many problems itself...
 
Oh, and btw... mac laptops are pretty much compatable with any piece of peripheral software you can throw at them. They have native support for a ton of different printers and digital cameras without the need to install any drivers.
 
Thanks for the info Jim and halfadder. I had thought of lending her a desktop but my backup box is 5 yrs old and not capable. What processors are y'all using? Is a 1.7GHz capable of doing what y'all are doing?

Wuzup, some good advice, thanks. And thanks for the link; we are banking on some academic discounts. We will check out the powerbook. If they weren't more expensive it would be an easier sell. Like you I build my own, and don't have many problems. I can maintain them and know how to protect myself fairly well. My daughter doesn't. When I mention protection she just says, "Dad, Billy is 6'3", HE'S my protection🙂 What can I say?

mariner

 
I wouldn't recommend a Mac for video art. As I said before, my wife went to a large computer lab filled with MAC's running Adobe Premier, Photoshop etc. The machines often errored, froze and sometimes required hard reboots. I was unimpressed with the interface, the capabilities and performance. Get a good Media center PC, which is XP pro, put on a free firewall (zonealarm) a free virus scanner (AntiVIR) and run a free spyware scanner now and then (ad-aware) and you are just fine.

I spoke with someone that said a Pentium 4 PC, with a 3.4 z chip is the way to go, it's roughly 2 times faster at the job then the 3.0 speed and doing video. But it costs about $300 more.
 
Originally posted by: mariner
Thanks for the info Jim and halfadder. I had thought of lending her a desktop but my backup box is 5 yrs old and not capable. What processors are y'all using? Is a 1.7GHz capable of doing what y'all are doing?
Click to expand...

A 1.7 Pentium 4 could probably get the job done but still is a tad slow nowadays for new apps like Premiere Pro. A 1.7 Pentium M chip like I have in my new laptop is roughly comparable to many 2.4 to 2.6 Ghz Pentium 4 chips and is more than powerful enough for video editing, Photoshop, DVD authoring and whatever else she needs.
 
omisseble, thanks for the link. Their prices look to be very competitive. But the powerbook processors appear to be a bit slower than Intel's. But I understand that we can't compare apples to apples here because of the different architectures, correct? I apologize about my ignorance of powerbooks.

freshspin, from my contacts I think you may have stumbled upon an anomoly. Macs have a very good rep with graphics software.

JimG, I'm still a bit confused about the P4-PM comparisons. Some sources say the P4 is significantly more powerful than the P mobile because of the hyperthreading. Then some, like yourself, say the opposite because of the larger cache. But you're info on the cpu speed reflects what Wuzup said.

mariner
 
Regarding Freshspin's Wife's computer lab, there are many reasons why that lab may have been unstable:
Macs may have been running Mac OS 9.2.2 or earlier (horrid!)
Macs may have been running an early version of Mac OS X (10.2.x, 10.3.x, and newer are far far better).
Macs may have been running Mac OS X, but were using old versions of Photoshop and Premiere under "Classic" Mac OS 9 emulation!
Macs might have been very low on RAM. Swapping to disk is very slow, and often will eventually freeze the machine after hours or days of heavy swapping.
 
The larger cache makes the Pentium M chip fast compared to early 2004's comparable 2.x Ghz desktop Pentium pc's. I never ran any benchmarks, but if I can run Premiere Pro 1.5 on this laptop with decent real time previers, I'm happy.
 
Just a quick thing: Pentium 4, Pentium 4-m, and Pentium M are three different processors. The ladder is the one you want. It has a totally different archetecture (god i can't spell) than the Pentium 4 based chips. The pentium M was designed more efficiently and was designed for the mobile segment. The pentium 4-m is basically a cooler running pentium 4 desktop processor. Last I can remember a 1.6ghz Pentium M (the origional core with 1mb of L2) was about equal to a 2.4-2.6ghz desktop pentium 4. They are just more efficient, sorta like how AMD's processors of lesser clock speeds are even with pentium 4s of higher clock speeds.
 
JimG, Wuzip, thanks for that info. That clears up some confusion for me. This has been a good thread.

mariner
 
Freshspin,
But your 3.4 p4 is no match to a 2.0 Donathin... and the donathin wont be heatin up ur house as you work..



Will G.
 
My College (West Virginia Wesleyan College) just invested in a whole lab full of new PowerMac G5 desktops for our Art Department....What I have found, is that a Mac is excellent for Art/Vis Art work, and our professors agree, since they nearly all own or use Macs on a daily basis, and we're a Dell sponored school, so that should say something in itself....Once your daughter gets to school, it does get rediculous with virii off school networks from other students, to the point of losing all work and having problems due to that...as you said, this first year is crucial...Personally, if I was doing it again, I would have bought my PB a little sooner and saved myself a "English 102-missing term paper from crashed HD" incident, and now will consider safety BEFORE any computer purchase...I'd advise you to look into the Powerbook line, as any current machine will hold its performance and value over time (If she wants to upgrade later, the powerbook line holds its financial value VERY well...much better than PCs.....after 3 years, you can most likely still get at least half of the original purchase price, whereas PCs lose much, much more than that)

There is a reason that most professional musicians, photographers, and movie producers use Macs...they are simply KNOWN for their excellent stability with crucial and demanding work! The incident cited by a member above was a secondary testimonial...we have no idea whether the machines his wife worked with were newer/better equiped to handle that demanding software, or, in the most likely case, had more than 256/512mb of memory, which is an absolute must w/o even considering the computer platform....

You may take this testimonial for what it is...

Thanks,
Justin
WVWC Sophomore
 
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